


Let Your Heart Be Light

by Rachaelizame



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Huddling For Warmth, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-18 00:52:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9356444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachaelizame/pseuds/Rachaelizame
Summary: Miles and Keiko throw a party to introduce their new girlfriend to the winter holidays.





	

Miles knew he shouldn’t have told Julian about the Christmas party he and Keiko were planning. It wasn’t even supposed to be a party at all really! Just a little thing for the family. But Julian had gone and told someone- probably Jadzia- and now it seemed everyone knew. He’d been fielding self-invitations all day and around 1500 he’d finally broken. It seemed this party was going to be a little more public than they’d planned. It was a good thing they’d already planned to rent out the holodeck for a few hours that night.

He’d just finished altering the holodeck to make it more amenable to a larger group when Julian came up to him. He seemed to be almost pouting and Miles immediately knew what he was here to say.

“Chief!” Miles held his hand up before Julian could say anything.

“Yes, you can come to the party, Julian,” he said.

“Great! Uh, I’ve heard we can bring dates?” Miles sighed. He knew what this meant.

“Yeah, go ahead. Bring your Cardie boyfriend. Dunno why he would want to come to an Earth holiday but it’s fine with me.” Julian frowned slightly at the adjective but was grinning again by the end of the statement.

“He’s not my boyfriend. I just… like him. But thanks, Miles. But I thought you and Keiko were planning to just have a little party to introduce Major Kira to Christmas?”

“That was the plan, yeah.”

“Oh,” Julian gave him a chagrined look.

 

Miles and Kira walked over to Keiko, whose mischievous smile grew as they drew near. Julian watched them from across the room, and when they arrived he shouted over to them.

“Mistletoe!” Miles groaned and Kira looked around, confused.

“What?” She asked. Keiko’s smile grew.

“On Earth, it’s traditional that anyone who stands under mistletoe- this plant- kiss.” Kira’s eyes widened.

“I see,” She still wasn’t always open with her displays of affection. Across the room Julian had just finished explaining mistletoe to Molly.

“Mommy, Daddy, kiss Nerys!” She shouted. Keiko moved to follow the instruction and Miles joined her. He pressed a quick kiss to Kira’s cheek while Keiko kissed her hard on the lips.

“Now Aunt Nerys kiss Mommy and Daddy!” Kira grinned and quickly returned the kisses, shortly followed by Miles and Keiko kissing.

The three lovers smiled at each other, briefly lost in their new love. Keiko and Miles rested their hands on Kira’s stomach- it wouldn’t be long now before the baby was born.

For the rest of the night, for all his maneuvering, Julian couldn’t manage to get Garak to stand under the mistletoe.

 

At first, they didn’t realize anything was wrong. The program was designed to be only slightly cooler than the rest of the station, and at first no one noticed the temperature slowly dropping. Once they realized it, people tried to leave, hoping to fix the program, or at least grab some warmer clothes. It was then that they discovered that the doors wouldn’t open.

Miles contacted his team who promised to fix the problem right away, but it would still likely be awhile before they could get out. Keiko stepped up to calm people’s fears.

“Alright! This isn’t ideal, but we still have control of the holodeck aside from the temperature. We can have it give us blankets and warm clothes, and, if needed, we can make some bedrooms for everyone to sleep in.” She started asking the computer to materialize blankets and sweaters.

Julian glanced toward Garak and bit his lip. The Cardassian would be more susceptible to the cold than the humans and Bajorans at the party. In fact, though Garak was doing a good job hiding his chill, if they didn’t warm him up he could get quite ill.

Julian walked over to Keiko, quietly asking her for the program information so he could design a new room.

When he had finished, he picked up a blanket and plain sweater from the pile, folded them over his arms, and went back over to Garak, who, despite the cold, had not grabbed a blanket or sweater. Julian supposed that was good, though it might just be Garak’s stubbornness kicking in. He probably didn’t like any of the sweaters, most of which were “ugly Holiday sweaters.” Luckily, Julian had found one which he thought would fit Garak in a plain grey shade.

“Er, Garak? Can we talk? In private?” Garak moved to follow Julian without question, which was not a good sign.

Julian led him back to the room he’d created, a bedroom as small as possible, with just a bed and a fireplace, with a fire burning merrily. Julian tossed the blanket and sweater at Garak and put on his best “authorial doctor” face.

“You are going to put on that sweater and lie down in that bed with the blanket on. Read, put on a holovid, hell even bring holograms in to entertain you, I don’t care. Just stay in that bed.” Garak raised an eyeridge.

“Really, Doctor is all this necessary?”

“Yes. You’re cold enough on the station regularly. I’ve put the calculations in. If you stay this cold, even for just a few more hours, you’ll make yourself sick. I’m your doctor, it’s my job to avoid that.”

“Actually, my dear doctor, your job is to fix my ailments after they occur. I’m just giving you something to do,”

“Actually, my dear Mr. Garak, my job is officially prevention and treatment of illness and injury. You really must be cold. You’re getting sloppy.”

As they spoke, Julian found himself standing closer and closer to Garak. He firmly told himself to stop. This was a time to help Garak, not flirt with him.

We can’t do both? A small part of him questioned, but he shushed that part.

Garak sighed heavily, briefly giving ground. He pulled on the sweater and settled himself in the bed. Julian draped the blanket over him for extra warmth, all the while thinking that this was too easy. Garak never gave in this easily, and he wouldn’t even if he were dying. They’d proven that well enough already. There was still a catch.

Once Garak was wrapped in a blanket, Julian bit his lip, still waiting for the catch.

“Well, Doctor. This certainly will do the job. As long as I stay here. How exactly do you intend to do that?” Julian groaned.

“Why can’t you just make this easy on yourself? You staying here is the best situation for both of us!” Julian knew why. Garak couldn’t stand to reveal a weakness, even when it was one the whole station already knew he had.

“That may be, but I’m afraid you’ll need a stronger argument to convince me.” All of a sudden Julian had an idea. It was a crazy idea, probably motivated in part by that small piece of him he’d shushed earlier, but it was the best idea he had at the moment. He climbed into bed beside Garak, relishing the brief flash of surprise across his friend’s face. He layed down and wrapped his arms around Garak, ignoring the feeling that sent through his body.

“There!” He said.

“My dear, you realize I could easily escape this hold of yours?” Garak questioned, looking at him like he’d lost his mind.

“I’m sure you could, but you know I would fight it the whole time. While you would win, it would still require at least some struggle to dislodge an entire adult person from your body.”

“And that makes a difference?”

“Of course it does. You are capable of physical violence, but you prefer psychological measures or weapons like phasers or disruptors. You only hurt someone like this when you have no other choice or when they can’t really fight back. Physically attacking people is messy and you don’t really enjoy it in the same way. Also, and this is pure conjecture, I’m your friend. People don’t just fight their friends.”

“And how have you come to these conclusions?”

“You seem to forget, Garak, that while you are more practiced at observation, I have had years to observe you. And I’ve been watching you quite closely.” He felt Garak shiver a bit in his arms and frowned. He really was quite cold.

“And tonight’s observations say you’re cold.”

“Alright Doctor. If you insist. I really don’t see the need for this, but if it makes you happy…”

“Yes. It does,” Julian spoke. It was true in more ways than one.


End file.
